The Hot Docs festival features once more three Chilean films as part of its official selection. Gaucho Americano as a world premiere; the project Breaking the Brick as part of the Forum, one of the most important industry sections for financing; and Punto de Encuentro, which will be in the distribution section of the Canadian market. Also participating in this event is the animated documentary Los magnificos, as part of the Chilean delegation, and in the framework of a collaborative work that, for the first time, is perfomed between Chiledoc and the Chilean Animation Association, Animachi.
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Between April 29 and May 9 the Canadian International Film Festival Hot Docs is held, an event that this year features the participation of outstanding Chilean documentaries and projects in development. One of them is Gaucho Americano, a film directed by Nicolás Molina and produced by Joséphine Schroeder that will be premiered at the Hot Docs International Spectrum Selection. The documentary, filmed between the Chilean Patagonia and the United States, gives an account of the adaptation process to the culture and work method of two gauchos who are hired as muleteers in a ranch in the western United States. «We have always been convinced that we had to reach the North American market with this documentary, and a premiere at Hot Docs, the largest documentary festival in North America, assures us that the film reaches its audience» says Joséphine Schroeder, documentary producer.
Before the premiere in this important festival, the crew of Gaucho Americano was able to participate in different laboratories and markets among which stand out 3 Puertos Cine, in stages of development and editing, Docs in Progress of the Mexican festival Docs MX and Conecta. «The most complex thing has been to position this very cinematographic documentary in the international documentary industry. In this sense, it was a great help to travel to international markets to understand precisely what the main actors of the medium were looking for and then address the right institutions or people for this type of film » adds Schroeder.
Hot Docs is an event that opens doors to the North American industry and, in particular, to the participation of national production in market spaces, which in the short and long term allows the networking within the sector. This is how Diego Pino sees it, deputy director of Chiledoc and part of the Chilean delegation that will participate in the Canadian festival, who has been working for more than a decade in instances and spaces that look to promote the Chilean documentary internationally. «There is no other documentary market, both in the United States and in Canada, that has the capacity to bring together so many industry agents at the same time and that allows us to connect with a particular territory» he says.
Breaking the Brick is another of the films that participates in the market, particularly in the official selection of Docs Forum, space for the search of financing and new partners, and one of the most important ones of the event. The documentary, directed by Carola Fuentes and produced by Rafael Valdeavellano, is the only Latin American project selected and has some international funds already, which has allowed it to open up to the possibility of finding other actors in the market that would provide the financing of this film and other projects from the national documentary industry. The project shows the contrast between two realities in a Chile that longs to reform the neoliberal model through the creation of a new Constitution.
Once again the Chilean productions stand out in this market. Last year the projects Isla Alien, directed by Cristóbal Valenzuela and produced by Diego Breit, and A la sombra de la luz, by directors Isabel Reyes and Ignacia Merino, and produced by María José Díaz, were selected at Hot Docs Forum 2020, leaving in evidence the international value of the national documentary industry. «This type of selection in such relevant festivals, allows us to give an account of Chilean productions and currently the industry and audiences are taking more into consideration what is happening with documentary cinema in Chile» comments Diego Pino on the importance of visibility for the sector.
Punto de Encuentro is the third national production that stands out with its participation in the festival. Directed by Roberto Baeza and produced by Paulina Costa, and selected at SANFIC’s Tribeca Film Institute workshop, it is a film that tells the close working relationship between two filmmakers who use fiction cinema to reconstruct their parents’ story, who forged a deep friendship in 1975 when they shared a small cell in Villa Grimaldi, an emblematic detention and torture center during the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile. The project participates in the Distribution Rendezvous event of this edition of the Canadian market.
Los magnificos, directed by Fanny Leiva and produced by José Miguel Barriga is an animation project, part of the Chilean delegation, which participates in the festival as part of a collaborative work performed for the first time between Chiledoc and the Chilean Animation Association, Animachi, with funding from the Ministry of Cultures, Arts and Heritage. This animated documentary, by Tapel Papiz Producciones, tells the story of a group of seven children, from a special need school in Santiago de Chile, diagnosed with autism and with little development of verbal language, who call themselves Los Magnificos. The project contains animation created by the film’s protagonists, in an attempt to vindicate their voices and validate different forms of communication.
Other films that are part of the Chilean delegation are Al amparo del cielo, directed by Diego Acosta and produced by Florencia Dupont and Sebastián Sánchez Barrientos; Albertina y los muertos, directed by César Borie and produced by Rocío Romero; El fantasma de María, directed by Nicolás Superby and produced by Florencia Dupont; Espacio desierto, directed by Yerko Ravilic and produced by Michel Toledo; Máxima de Miami directed by Nicole Costa and produced by Daniela Camino; and Ver es un acto, directed by Bárbara Pestán and produced by Javiera Véliz.
The virtual attendance to the festival and market Hot Docs, Canada, is funded by the Ministry of Cultures, Arts and Heritage, and managed by Chiledoc, the sectoral brand of the Chilean documentary, and ANIMACHI.
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